Alkyonides
The Alkyonides are a race of Cnidaria inhabiting many worlds in the Scorpius Centaurus Association, though they originated on one of the larger satellites of the brown dwarf Alkyoneus. Capable of surviving in the vacuum of space, an Alkyonides fluther first encountered a Kiatoc armada during the Age of Pillaging and soon infested almost every capital ship within the fleet. Physical Appearance The Alkyonides occupy three phases in their lifespan; a larval planula, a polyp and a medusa stage. The members in the planula phase are known for their frenetic, violent and monomaniacal feeding frenzy. This phase can last for days or weeks before their exposure to high energy radiation triggers a metamorphosis into their second phase. In the second phase of their life, the Alkyonides attach themselves to a rough substrate like the hull of a bioship and ensconce themselves in a coral-like reef, eventually emerging from the reef in their medusa form, resembling a jellyfish. In their planula larva phase, an individual is jet black in appearance about 89 cm (35 inches) long. Nearly the entire anterior plane of the larva's body is a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth that can grind the organic matrix of the bioship's hull. In the polyp stage of the Alkyonides, the polyp latches onto a solid surface, like the hull of a bioship, and forms a quartz crystalline shelter around itself, exposing only the mouth and small, stinger-like appendages underneath the mouth. Polyps tend to congregate together, typically living in compact colonies. Once mature, the creature within the polyp will shed the quartz shelter and emerge as a medusa. It is believed that while the Alkyonides are physically immobile during this polyp stage, they may be actively collaborating mentally. During this polyp phase, the Alkyonides gather into an enormous mass and wait for the coming of a more hospitable climate. Likely, this second stage was an adaptation on a world that underwent frequent climatic shifts; in times when their homeworld's atmosphere would sublime into ice caps, the Alkyonides would leave their polyp stage and become wispy medusas, capable of traversing the vacuum of interplanetary space in enormous space-fluthers until their planet's atmosphere returns. The Alkyonides' proximo-distal axis as a medusa can measure between 3 and 4 meters long (10-13 feet) in their medusa form. In the medusa phase, they emerge from their reefs, spindly and white nearly to the point of translucence, and are able to move through the vacuum of space by radially expanding and contracting their bell-shaped bodies. If a tentacle or limb is removed from the medusa form, it may bud asexually into another Alkyonide medusa. Because the Alkyonides have a simple nervous system, they likely are not capable of higher-order planning on their own. However, they seem to be able to communicate with members of their own species, and when they gather in groups as medusa, they seem to be collectively capable of higher-order thinking. Each individual in a group of sufficient size seems to function as though they were a neuron in a nervous system. Parasitism Having evolved on a dwarf planet less massive than Earth, their homeworld likely orbited a yellow-white parent star between 3-10 AU. Such a planet would have likely experienced drastic seasonal changes. Able to survive in the vacuum of space, the Alkyonides could routinely reach escape velocity to leave the gravitational pull of the planet and survive in outer space, but it would take years to reach another moon orbiting Akyoneus. Little is known about how they first made contact with the Kiatoc, but their encounter with the warrior species may have been the design of another intelligent species seeking revenge on the Kiatoc because it is unlikely that the Alkyonides ever created technology for interplanetary spacecraft or that the Kiatoc would have engaged the Alkyonide homeworld given their lack of technology. The earliest encounter between the Kiatoc and Alkyonides likely occurred during the Age of Pillaging when the Kiatoc assaulted many different worlds. The Alkyonides are drawn to the power source that drives Kiatoc bioships; when exposed to the radiation from the bioship's power source, the Alkyonides' planula become unnaturally ravenous and gnaw on the hull of bioships. While the Alkyonides are unable to regenerate limbs when in their frenetic phase, they are highly aggressive and difficult to kill in their frenzied state and will relentlessly pursue anything perceived as a threat to them. The only known strategy for combating an Alkyonide infestation is to disengage the bioship power source and wait for days for the Alkyonides to metamorphose into their sedentary polyp stage. Once in their polyp state, if the Kiatoc can pry the polyp from the ship's hull, they are able to physically hurl them into the vacuum of space before returning power to the bioship. In the interim, the total shutdown leaves the Kiatoc vulnerable to attacking ships. If the ship is not shut down in time,the Alkyonides larvae may breach the hull of the ship and expose the Kiatoc crew to the vacuum of space. Scorpius-Centaurus Association The Kiatoc would quarantine any ships infested with Alkyonides in the Sco OB2 to prevent the spread of the parasites within the fleet. However, the integrity of at least one bioship was compromised and a fluther of Alkyonide medusas escaped, colonizing planets in the Lower Centaurus–Crux sub-group. The Alkyonides thrive on B-A type binary star systems because the exposure to such high levels of radiation accelerates the transition from larvae to polyp and enables the medusa to become more metabolically active in space, since they rely, in part, on high-energy rays to regulate their life cycle.